Stonebranch UAC 7.8 Release Offers Automation for All

The latest release of Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) is a game-changer. Version 7.8 introduces the new Stonebranch Universal Portal, a streamlined self-service interface designed to empower non-technical users to engage with automation in a secure, intuitive way. But this release doesn’t stop there — it includes a series of enhancements across the UAC platform that deepen enterprise automation capabilities and paves the way for broader adoption across complex business IT landscapes.

Whether you’re an IT Ops pro or a citizen automator, UAC 7.8 marks a major milestone in maximizing the value of automation through broader accessibility

A New Way to Work with Automation: Meet the Universal Portal

UAC 7.8’s headline feature is Universal Portal. This simplified UX is purpose-built for tech-savvy and non-technical citizen automators to launch and manage workflows faster, with more agility and autonomy.

For central IT teams, Universal Portal makes it easier than ever to offer automation-as-a-service. It securely extends automation capabilities to business units, helpdesk agents, and beyond — without giving up IT oversight. This shift reduces the burden on IT, cuts down on routine service tickets, and helps teams focus on higher-value initiatives.

The result is a democratized approach to automation that drives productivity across the organization while maintaining enterprise-grade governance.

While UAC power users will still enjoy the robust capabilities available in the Universal Controller, the Universal Portal opens the door to a new class of automation users across the enterprise. Here’s what makes the portal so impactful:

• Intuitive Simplicity: Users can launch tasks, view workflows, and inspect outputs without writing a single line of code or navigating complex configuration screens.
• Mobile-Ready, Responsive Design: Whether users access the Universal Portal from a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, the experience is seamless and adapts to the device’s screen.
• SSO Integration and Role-Based Access Controls: The portal mirrors UAC’s enterprise-grade security model, including LDAP(S), SAML, and OAUTH2 support. Users log-in with existing credentials and only see what they’re authorized to access.
• Live Data Insights: Task and workflow states update in real-time, offering instant visibility into automation health and status.
• Rapid Search: Find tasks, triggers, and definitions quickly with a smart search experience that makes navigation effortless.

This first release of the Universal Portal supports English and German languages, with additional localization planned. Early customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with several organizations providing feedback during our early preview program.

By enabling self-service automation at scale, the Universal Portal aligns with today’s automation-first approach — where the responsibility for orchestrating processes is distributed across multiple teams, not just IT.

UAC 7.8: A Platform-Wide Leap Forward

Universal Portal is an exciting addition to 7.8. In addition, the broader UAC platform has also received a series of key enhancements designed to improve functionality, performance, and extensibility.

PostgreSQL Support Added

With UAC 7.8, Stonebranch officially supports PostgreSQL as a backend database for the Universal Controller. This addition gives customers more flexibility in aligning their UAC deployments with open-source database standards — lowering cost and expanding infrastructure options.

Enhanced Command Line Interface (CLI)

UAC 7.8 introduces a new CLI built on top of the REST API that offers access to all automation functionalities. It’s designed for automation teams who prefer a CLI user experience or need to integrate UAC functionality into scripting languages. This makes UAC easily integrated into DevOps toolchains and complements UAC’s existing jobs-as-code capabilities to enable seamless automation.

SAP Agent Re-Certified for S/4HANA and RISE

With UAC 7.8, the Stonebranch SAP agent is now officially re-certified by SAP, ensuring compatibility with both SAP S/4HANA and RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This certification validates UAC’s ability to reliably automate SAP jobs across hybrid and cloud-native environments — giving customers the confidence to orchestrate critical business processes.

SAP Task – Job Steps Statistics

This release adds real-time visibility into SAP Job Step execution statistics within SAP tasks. New fields and checkboxes allow users to monitor job steps while tasks are running or after completion. These enhancements offer deeper insight into SAP workload execution and simplify troubleshooting within complex SAP workflows.

Enhanced Containerized Automation

UAC 7.8 improves containerization deployment with official validation for Red Hat OpenShift on-premises. The release also adds support for TLS with Server Name Indication (SNI) for OMS clients, providing more flexible and secure connectivity options in distributed environments. Combined, these enhancements simplify deployments and offer flexibility in deploying UAC for container-based and hybrid cloud use cases.

iSeries Submit Job (SMBJOB) Enhancement

UAC 7.8 enhances support for IBM iSeries (AS/400) automation by introducing output retrieval for SMBJOB tasks. Users can now directly view job output within the UAC interface, streamlining monitoring and troubleshooting for automated workloads on iSeries systems.

Tomcat 10 and Java 21 Support

UAC 7.8 includes updates to the underlying platform stack to support Tomcat 10.1.x and Java 21, while removing support for Tomcat 8.5/9 and Java 11. These updates modernize the UAC foundation to align with Jakarta EE 9 and Spring Framework 6, ensuring long-term compatibility, security, and performance across deployment environments.

New Integrations

Integrations connect UAC with external systems, tools, and platforms, which allows users to orchestrate workflows across their entire IT environment from a single control point. They serve as pre-built connectors that simplify automation across hybrid and cloud-native stacks.

Stonebranch continuously releases new and updated integrations to keep pace with evolving technologies and customer needs. Since the last major release, the following integrations have been added or significantly enhanced:

• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
• AWS Elastic Container Services (ECS)
• AWS EMR
• SAP Cloud Data Services (CPI DS)
• Boomi
• And more!

Universal Portal and Beyond: What’s Coming Next

UAC 7.8 reinforces Stonebranch’s commitment to delivering enterprise automation that is powerful enough for IT professionals and simple enough for everyone else. The Universal Portal will continue to evolve, with upcoming releases adding more features, integrations, and customization options based on user feedback. Meanwhile, the core UAC components — including Universal Controller, Universal Agents, Universal Integration Platform, Universal Data Mover (UDM), and Universal Data Mover Gateway (UDMG) — will see ongoing enhancements that expand the platform’s reach.

As organizations continue to adopt automation across all corners of the enterprise, Stonebranch stands ready to help them orchestrate, connect, and accelerate with confidence. To learn more about UAC 7.8, join the What’s New webinar on April 23 or review the UAC 7.8 release notes.